Merchant Lynx Services Review

Overall Rating

Category Breakdown

Overview

Merchant Lynx (merchantlynx.com) is a merchant account provider based in Annapolis, Maryland, with offices in Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, and Arizona. Merchant Lynx claims to have entered the credit card processing industry in 1994, but the company’s Better Business Bureau profile reports a starting year of 2006 and we have located no complaints filed before 2005. Merchant Lynx uses iPayment for its payment processing network and First Data for its equipment leases. Merchant Lynx is a registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Walnut Creek, California, with headquarters at 1997 Annapolis Exchange Pkwy, STE 440, Annapolis, Maryland 21401-3274. John Kucyk is listed as the president of Merchant Lynx.

Key Points

Sales & Marketing: Merchant Lynx has received a high number of complaints about its sales practices and sales representatives.

Sales & Marketing

Key Points - Sales & Marketing

Employs Independent Resellers

Yes

Advertises Deceptive Rates

No

Discloses All Important Terms

No

Merchant Lynx Services appears to utilize telemarketing and independently contracted sales agents to market its services. These practices usually result in a high complaint rate, as they are structured to motivate sales agents to sign merchants up for the most expensive contracts possible. Merchant Lynx appears to be no exception, as we are currently able to locate numerous Merchant Lynx reviews that describe deceptive sales practices by the company’s agents. Multiple merchants report nondisclosure of contract terms, misrepresentation of rates, and high-pressure or aggressive sales practices. We have also located multiple reports of unprofessional behavior by sales agents, including leaving a sales meeting suddenly to avoid providing specific information and engaging in fake phone calls with their employer to reassure a merchant. These types of complaints have remained consistent and even possibly intensified in recent months.

Phillip’s Top E-Commerce Picks

Costs & Contract

Key Points - Costs & Contract

Swiped Rate

Variable

Keyed-in Rate

Variable

Early Termination Fee

$495

PCI Compliance Fee

$159

Equipment Lease Terms

48 Months, Non-Cancellable

The standard Merchant Lynx terms and conditions describe a three-year agreement through iPayment with automatic renewal for one-year terms and an early termination fee of $495. Multiple merchants also report a PCI Compliance fee of $159. Other fees, such as a monthly minimum fee, a statement fee, or a rate schedule appear to vary from merchant to merchant and can be found on a separate document known as the merchant application. There are currently a high number of merchant complaints about most of Merchant Lynx’s contract terms, from the expensive early termination fee to non-cancellable, 48-month equipment leases through First Data Global Leasing. Merchants also report other undisclosed fees and higher-than-expected rates. Overall, there is no information online that suggests that Merchant Lynx Services offers competitive contract terms. Public merchant reviews of Merchant Lynx’s pricing and fee structure are consistently negative. See the Merchant Lynx program guide.

Complaints & Service

Key Points - Complaints & Service

Total Online Complaints

100+

Live Customer Support

Unknown

Most Common Complaint

Hidden Fees

We are currently able to locate approximately over 100 Merchant Lynx Services complaints, and the majority of these complaints outright accuse the company of being a scam or a ripoff. Common issues include nondisclosure of contract terms, misrepresentation of rates, expensive contracts and equipment leases, aggressive sales tactics, and poor customer service. Some of these complaints appear to have received very unprofessional rebuttals from company representatives, but most have not received any sort of response. The consensus among complainants appears to be that Merchant Lynx Services does not offer reliable customer support, and many merchants report instances in which they were unable to reach any representatives at all for extended periods of time. It is unclear at this time whether the contact information on the Merchant Lynx Services website leads directly to a customer support staff.

BBB

Key Points - BBB

Note: We have adjusted this company’s BBB rating according to our own standards. To better understand why we adjust BBB ratings, please see our Rating Criteria.

As of this update, Merchant Lynx Services has a “B-” rating with the Better Business Bureau and is showing 49 complaints filed in the last 36 months, which is up from 34 complaints as of our last review. Of the complaints, 20 are due to problems with the services or products, 11 with advertising or sales issues, and 18 with billing and collection. Out of the total, 15 were successfully resolved, while 34 either were resolved to the dissatisfaction of the merchant or did not receive a final response from the merchant. These figures mark a sharp decline in performance since our last review, which is consistent with the recent uptick in complaints that we have received regarding this company. We have therefore adjusted the BBB‘s rating to a “D” for the purposes of this review.

Response from Merchant Lynx

Merchant Lynx Bottom Line

Merchant Lynx Services rates as a substandard merchant account provider according to all available information. The company offers expensive contract terms through iPayment and appears to sign merchants up for costly long-term leases through First Data. Additionally, many merchants have reported behavior by the company’s sales agents that ranges from unethical to rude. Merchants are encouraged to read their contract terms carefully before signing up for this company’s services.

About Phillip Parker

Hi, I’m Phillip and I’m disgusted by the state of credit card processing in the U.S. and abroad. I believe that the industry has been overrun by people who engage in fraud and deception in order to steal money from hard working business owners. I’ve made it my mission to expose the companies and individuals who engage in predatory marketing, pricing, and contracts, or just provide terrible service. Along with uncovering the bad guys, I’ve also discovered the good guys who do stand out from the status quo. CPO is a website where you will find ratings and reviews of these companies along with advice on how to save money and which service providers consider. Together we can move the industry in a positive direction. If you would like to help support my work, please checkout “Fee Sweep” my eGuide to getting the lowest possible fees when accepting card payments. If you haven’t heard of “interchange” this advice will save you hundreds, even thousands, in processing fees.

Phillip’s Merchant Account Rate and Fee Savings Guide

Copyright & Disclaimer

Any unauthorized copying and reproduction of the content of this page, including all meta data and computer code, is strictly prohibited. While the information in the above article is believed to be accurate as of its publish date, the author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided “as is,” and without warranties. Any and all use of trade names and/or marks are for identification purposes only and shall not be construed as a claim of affiliation, or otherwise, with CardPaymentOptions.com, Inc. ("CPO") in any form. The sole purpose of the material presented herein is to alert, educate, and inform readers. It is not intended as legal or financial advice.

55 ReviewsLeave Your Review Below

This is the WORST 3rd party rep for statefarm glass claims!!! Hopefully statefarm can get someone that knows what they are doing. I had a rep from this company try to get me to put in socials of my employees

Worst company ever. Fees went off the roof after just a coup,e of monts depiste their promesses. Costumer and tech support are awfull… If any! better off with Square, at least you you exactly what you are going to pay.

This merchant is horrible. The sales rep promises you savings per month. When you get done paying fees for not one but three accounts there is no savings. They charge you multiple fees then promise reimbursement. The reimbursement takes weeks to get and they tie up your money when they took it right away from your account! I would not recommend them and if they take any further fees that require reimbursement I am going to report them to a governmental agency.

We used this company in 2012. They are the worst that I have had to deal with CC in over 20 years in business. Slick salesperson but after that not good at all. I point blank asked if there are ANY hidden charges and the answer was no. The early termination fee is hidden on page 3 in the small print. Make sure to look for it because it is also a 3yr contract. The PCI charge of $159 is charged when ever they want to charge you. RUN from this company.

JUST DONT! 1 Star is too much credit. They will sign you up even if you do not want their services. We decided not to go through with this company when the representative advised us we will need a new terminal as ours “was not compatible.” We paid for our system and did not want to lease one from them. The representative still opened the account and we were charged a monthly fee even though we do not receive any services through this company. They are even trying to charge the 500 cancellation fee after we called about this unwanted account. Of course, the representative who came to our location can not be reached and no one ever returns our calls as they tell you when you call. Just avoid the headache and do not provide any information to this company.

This company is the worst. They are the type that will add little charges here and there just hoping that most people won’t notice. They added a $4 monthly fee and said it was directly from master card so there is nothing they can do. This is a total lie as I am a smalll business bookkeeper and work with many merchants and no one else had this charge from MasterCard. They give you the run around and work on trying to drive you crazy just to get you to go away. I will be canceling and I don’t even care if it costs me hundreds of dollars to do so. I am worried about this 4 year contract with first data for the machine. Ugh

Call to cancel and told them not to bill me a $99 fee for EMV fee would no longer using system and closed account. Been customer since 2012. Not only did they bill me but charge early termination fee. Took 8 phones calls and Everytime put on hold promised they would look into it. Send this send that all it was bull last call two supervisors and the final was too bad contact your bank. Last people I would do business with and will tell every business owner I know to stay away. Just bull

The biggest mistake we made is using this company as our card processing company。 We are dealing with a service provider who is so awful, unfair business practices and deceptive sales tactics, bad serves, hidden fees, bad business ethics, all bad things, you name it. Complains about this company are all over the internet. But ML is still in business and continue to rip off merchants. I wonder under what law this company is operating. We need to keep calling State Attorney Office. This company needs to be shut down by authority to avoid any more victims.

1910 Distribution Co Acct #: 4228997200040926 Contract Signed:7/28/16 Equip Installed: 8/2/16 1st Trans Date: 8/8/16 ML offered great rates & we changed our previous CC provider. What they didn’t tell us is that their cust serv is horrible, they hold initial deposits for weeks & they dont offer assistance with PCI compliance in effort to add fees. My overall experience has been that they treat customers as a foe rather than a commercial partner. 1st sign of bad service was on Aug 8th when we filled out the PCI compliance questionnaire. Its a complicated process filled with a ton of very tech terms. We tried working through this process yet we didnt have any prev guidance from ML or knowledge that we would need this. I called & after an hour on the phone I still had no hands-on customer support & or solid answers. We spoke to a person in PCI compliance that instructed us to answer all the questions YES. We did that & submitted then received notice that the test failed & we had to make changes to our server & operating systems. If we dont make these changes we will be subject to heavy fines & fees. Our business is mostly cash, check & terms but we use CC processing to bill ONE customer. Their transactions are charged wkly & avg around $30,000 a month. Our first wkly transactions totaled $6863. After a couple of days we noticed that the funds had not been deposited into our account, at that point we called cust serv. I had sensed a culture of bad serv but the second call confirmed my suspicions. Everyone that we talked to was rude & not helpful. Their hold times are very long & we were transferred to various depts before finally being told that the risk dept is who we should talk to. We were not able to immediately able to reach somebody. I finally received a call from Ben Grimes & he said the transactions were over our avg. This didn’t make sense considering that our monthly avg is well above that amount. They requested 3 months bank statements & copy of 1 invoice. We sent this info over to them the next day expecting that our funds would be released. They came back needing with more info which we sent. Days later Ben states that its still in investigation & that he had trouble contacting our cust. This is odd since we called them numerous times through the process. Keep in mind that we have been dealing with customer for 6 years & have never had any issues. You might think that this is an isolated issue yet my colleague is going through the exact same problem with his company Texas Stone Creations. His charges are closer to $20000 & his money is being tied up exactly as our is. Seems more like common practice rather than an isolated incident. I called to cancel the acct on Thurs 8/18/16. After a very long time on hold & various transfers we finally got a hold of the cancellation dept. They stated that we would get a call from corp in 24-48 hrs. I didn’t get a call & called back the morning of Mon 8/22/16. The person in cancellations stated that I had made a call at noon & they still had 3 business hrs to contact me. The day passed & I received no call. On the morning of Tue 8/23/16 I called again. I spoke to Cristina in cancellations & she said that they had 48 hrs to call me from the previous Thurs. I told her that time period had expired the previous day. She then said that it might take them about a week to respond to my cancelation notice. I was speaking to someone in the cancellation dept yet she stated that she could not help me. I asked to speak to her supervisor & she said that there were none on site. She also said that nobody in her office would be able to help since only someone in corp could call me. I then asked for the number of someone in corp & she said that that number was not available for her to give. We have sent all of the paperwork requested & they have made contact with our cust. On 8/23/16 we still have not received funds. I also have $20,000 that are ready to charge yet I can’t process ML.

To make matters worse I received a nasty email from Ben Grimes stating that we were in this situation because we had made charges we were not authorized to do. Unauthorized? We have been dealing with our customer for 6 years and have never had any issues until I mistakenly signed up with Merchant Lynx.

I repeated that it was the biggest mistake to get involved withML. The rate they charged Avg. 3.7% while out contract rate is 1.85%. It is very difficult to find one to talk to to clear questions and issues. The sales agent disappeared as soon as we signed paper he provided. He never return calls. It is a horable ripoff, scam company. We got charged $99 on sept. 11 for no reason. I called dust serv and was told to get refund in 5-10 buz days. There has been issues(s) every month. We are so exhausted dealing with ML. If you can, get out, the sooner the better.

As I wrote before that it was our biggest mistake to get involved with Merchant Lynx. There is not service at all. At the beginning of each month, we have to call or email Merchant Lynx to clarify the fees charged to our bank account. There have always been over charge than the contract rate. On June 9 its sale pushed us to sign a 36 month leas contract for chip card reader device, It cost $150 to buy it. Merchant Lynx charge $32 per month and told us it would start working in two or three business days. Now it has been two month. The device as not been active and now one called us or show up to tell us what to do. Its customer services promised us to contract them as soon as we could they would take care of it. We emailed them many times for over charged fees for April and June. No idea how long it will take for the customer service to have hands on our issues. For the chip card reader, its customer service kicked the ball to First Data which we never had contracted. It has been a very, very painful experience dealing with Merchant Lynx and it is exhausting. This company should be out of business so no more victim. We still have to keep fighting with it until we get ourselves out of jail.

This is a very, very back company. Authorities should shut it down to avoid more victims ripped by them. All the reviews told the truth. We had fee and other issues outstanding for four months. We email them and called them. They always had excuses, either not feeling well, sick or away from office. We spent tons of time dealing with them. Problems have not been resolved. Now they are going to charge a one-time fee for the chip card which is not in the contract. Please never get involved with this company. We made a big mistake and got stuck.

I’m glad I took the time to review this company and I’m glad I found this website. At the same time, I feel bad that all of you who signed with Merchant Lynx, thinking you were doing what you thought was best for your business, turned out to be the wrong one. I wish you all good luck with resolving your issues but know that because of your feedback, one small business owner isn’t going to fall for their b.s. I called the guy who came to see me and told him about all of the bad ratings of who he works for and all of the complaints left on this website. I also told him I have known one of the guys in the video above for about 6 years now, so I called him and my friend told me to stay away from Merchant Lynx as well. He was friends with one of the two owners, Phil, from when the company started and that’s why he was in the video. Good luck to all of you small business out there. Just know that your efforts of feedback have helped someone and there will be one less victim for Merchant Lynx to feed off of.

I signed up with this Merchant Lynx about 4 months ago. What a mistake, they didn’t send card processing hardware they didn’t process a single transaction. they just cancelled the account and charged me $500. and the customer relations department isn’t in anyway considerate. this company is a scam.

They lie, they cheat, they steal. My original contract was an enticing 1.7 on MC/VisA. Within 1 year it is 2.75. The sales rep is MIA. My addendum says month to month processing. They claim 3 year contract with $495. early cancellation penalty. I have sent the addendum to them 3 times, yet they have no record of it. STAY AWAY FROM THESE CROOKS!

This is a scam 100%. We signed for on account they fraudulent created a second account. And then they start to take money from my banking account. We even did not start to do business with them but they were stealing money from my account. With a lawyer I forced them to give part of my money back, but the rest of my money was gone because they said they use a third party and was this thirth party responsible for the rest of the money. Of course they did not know who were this thirth party. Be careful with these thieves

Their claim of “NO FEES” is just a big fat lie. They have fees for EVERYTHING. I recently got a $189.00 “enhanced security package” fee in the middle of the month that I never asked for or agreed to. There is a monthly $14.95 iaccess fee to get into your account–and since they went paperless you basically have no choice but to pay it. A $99.00 application fee, a $10.00 signature fee–yep, a signature fee! A $5.00 monthly statement fee, a random $25.00 fee that I have NO idea what for….and in March 2016 a notice that all my promised percentages (1.99%) were all increasing. I used the Waltham, MA office and the account executive, was Karen Druziak. The last time I looked (May 2016) their rating with the BBB was an “F” and not a “C” as it states on here. BEWARE!! Do not use this company. I wish I had looked before I signed.

Where do I begin, a Merchant Lynx salesman came into my salon with the promise of having my cc fees reduced dramatically, showed me an example of what my bill will look like. Everything looked great and signed on with them, first 3 months everything was perfect, exactly as Steve Kim(sales Rep in NY) presented, then on the 4th month everything changed, all of a sudden , i got bombarded with all of these extra fees adding to a total of $200 – $300 a month extra. Now my statements were higher than before i switched, i curse that day i signed on with Merchant Lynx. Have you ever called the customer service #, you are on hold for a good 45mins to an 1hr, i cant tell you how many hrs i have spent on hold and every customer service rep i got in touch with said there is nothing they can do and they will have my sales rep contact me or someone from Merchant Lynx. months passed i still i have never received a call or email from either one, so i just bit the bullet and dealt with them. After a yr goes by, Mr. Steve Kim walks through my door as if nothing happened and i explain to him exactly what has happened, he smiles and says why didn’t you try to reach me, at that point i wanted to choke him. He tells me that i need a n ew chip terminal and he is going to make sure i get the rate that i was promised, this time i have him write everything out, word for word, months go by and nothing has changed, not only am i getting charged the extra fees but now my rate has jumped from 1.7 to 2.7. I call and email Steve Kim and no response, i also receive a nice bill from First date telling me i signed a 48 month lease. I am now involving a lawyer and would like to see if we can start a civil law action suit against this company. I did after extensive research get the Merchant Lynx headquarters in NY. I went to their office and demanded i speak with someone, Vic the VP spoke with me regarding the matter, he was polite and spoke with me regarding everything but his only resolution was that rates go up and there is nothing he can do, so then why have me sign a contract, if the contract i sign is not upheld, looks like i need to go to court bc First Data wants $4000 for me to cancel the terminal, i now have been using a different processor and they are great and honest. Here is the information: Vic Fattore(VP os Sales & Marketing) [REDACTED – contact information], 411 Theodore Fremd Ave, Rye NY 10580, just in case if anyone needs to get in touch with them directly and not be on hold for hrs. If anyone has any advise on how i can handle First Data, i would be greatly appreciated.

I had similar nightmare experience as yours. Same pain…. In my situation, on top of the 48 month contract, （ I am in the second year), thye added a chip reader machine lease contract with additional monthly charge of $32 for three years. The First Data chip reader only costs $149 online sale… I have read so many complaints about Merchant Lynx。 I hope for a class action….

I am going through the exact same nightmare. In fact, my sales rep was also Steve Khym (he uses Khym not Kim). This scam-artist made me sign a non-cancellable lease contact with First Data, while Khym insisted that I am signing a cancellable contact – no disclosure and I don’t even have a copy of the lease agreement. I thought I was the only victim and Khym made a mistake. No response to my many many emails and phone calls. Their Customer Svc Desk is absolutely helpless – they are all the same scam artists. How do we stop this company ripping-off these poor small merchants? Can we initiate a legal action? BTW, did you resolve the lease contract with First Data? I now owe close to $5,000 to First Data due this scam-artist, Steve Khym’s fraudulent sales. I am thinking to bring these cases to public media, like New York Times, Newsdays, ABC, NBC and CBS etc.

I am going to court to nail these scam artists, A court date will be set within the next 15 days, i wanted to make sure i get as much as evidence as i can how they scammed me before i took it to court. Now its on! Im suing them for $5,637.05 , that includes all the overcharges, cancellation fee and the terminal rental. Every month i pay the stupid fee for my terminal and i dont even use the terminal, i switched to another company because i was sick of the overcharges and my rate kept going up. I hope one day i get to see Steve Kim, on all my contracts thats the way he spells it, Karma is Karma. Where are you located?, Shoot me an email so we can discuss this further, [REDACTED – personal contact information]

Hi Jay, I too am interested in what action you had taken. I too have been scammed by Steve Khym and was told the same pitch. I’m sorry I did not do my research beforehand. I was tired of my old credit card companies rates but in all honestly they were better than what fees I am seeing with this company. Any news or updates you can provide me with would be great. Thank

This guy Steve Khym scammed me also, I did sign the lease and he was going to give me a copy never came back, (haha and an free iPad also)I cancelled with them and paid the $495.00 fee, what a rip off, If I would have has the lease I would have had my lawyer check it out and would have 2 business days to cancel……I was with BOA with no monthly charges, why would I sign this….he filled in the amounts later….

I never got past the application stage and they set up an account and charge my checking account monthly even though they have never processed a payment. I have spoken to them on the phone , have faxed and mailed correspondence and they still charge may account for monthly fees and more They charge my checking monthly anywhere from $10 to $90 to $495.

Merchant Lynx Services should be shut down by the authorities! They took unauthorized fees from my checking account. Merchant Lynx Services does not provide their phone number on either their account application or their client statements, but, instead the phone number of their processor, ipayments. ipayments, which takes the funds from my banking account says they can not assist me with the account nor can they provide contact information for Merchant Lynx Services. I have filed complaints with the BBB and Massachusetts Attorney General. Do NOT DO BUSINESS WITH MERCHANT LYNX SERVICES.

I cannot believe this company is still in business. I switched from one processing company to Merchant Lynx. I was told they could save me over $100.00 per machine, I have 2. It ended up costing me about 200. per machine each month with all the hidden fees. I cancelled the contract 2 months later (Sept. 2015) and am still getting bills for any little thing they can think of. This month was 179.00 twice for annual fees. This company is a RIP OFF!!!!!!!!!!!

My biggest mistake for starting my restaurant business was to sign a contract with merchant Lynix. My business account keeps getting charged with fees that are not in the contract. Emails to the company got no response. I don’t understand under what law this company operations. Hope no one repeats my nighmare experience. Never sign up with this company. They should go out of business

Thanks to CPO! Merchant Lynx took my case very seriously after I posted comment on CPO. My case was put in the capable hands of a lady. Her first name is Tyana. I sent her a spreadsheet with all the fees charged, dates, amounts and ref and marked the items I had questions. She reviewed my spreadsheet and identified the root cause of the issues immediately. She corrected all errors by Merchant Lynx, cleared all confusions and answered all my questions. She is outstanding. I am quite happy now.

I thought I had a similar resolution but I just got charged $ 189.00 twice for compliance fees. It’s been 3 months since I thought this was resolved. Now it’s starting all over again. I’ve never delt with such a corrupt company. Beware!!!

my account got charged the fees are not enough in the contract. They opened a 2nd account for my business without my knowledge and they kept charge me. If has been three months that the problem was reported to the company. They funded me a small fee but the main problem still exits and I am still getting charged the fees I don’t even know what they are. Under what law does this company operates?

This company misrepresent their rates and fees in order to get me to sign a contract. Once I began to process cards it came to my attention that they had established a second contract at a higher rate. They used the signature page from the original contract to establish the second contract. That is fraud and forgery which is a federal crime. Then they had the audacity to send me a copy of that contract by email. That is mail fraud and also a federal crime. I immediately requested that both accounts be closed. They were not they dragged their feet for more than 90 days in order to justify charging me substantial termination fees. I am currently in contact with my states attorney general.

This company charges way too much for processing. They charged me a $159 annual fee in December after I dropped the company in august. They charged me a PCI compliance fee in May of $159. The new company only charges $30 for PCI and no annual fee. When I called Merchant Lynx to ask for a better processing rate they raised my rates. Do not do business with these people.

As of today, I believe Merchant Lynx owns me $4,154.65 in overcharges for my two business locations. I was double charged for PCI fees and annual fees. I was told it would be refunded. It was not. I was sent wireless terminals which I told them I did not want. I sent them back and continue to be charged for them. The company that provided our online ordering cancelled the service, I was told by Merchant Lynx that they would not charge me a cancellation fee as I was continuing to use them in my stores; they charged me $495/location. I was charged fees for 5 months of service which they did not provide while I was still using my old credit card provider. I talked/emailed my contact at Merchant Lynx and he has refused to respond to these claims. I asked for a copy of my contract, which I didn’t remember signing; I was sent the contracts-the signatures are not mine nor is my address mine. My attorney sent them a letter outlining the problems/overcharging to which they refuse to reply. I have since switched to another credit card processor but continue to be charged by Merchant Lynx. I have filed a complaint with the Attorney General, will follow up with a complaint to the BBB and will go with all the other options listed on this website under “How to Report Bad Credit Card Processors”.

WORST company I have ever dealt with. I’ve only been with them since December 2013, but it has been a nightmare. The only month the fees were as stated in my contract were the first month. Since then, they have overcharged every month. There are add on fees that were not agreed to and are not in writing anywhere. When I speak to the sales rep (look up slickster in the dictionary and you’ll see his pic) he promises me I will get a call from corporate to fix everything. Weekly calls to him and nothing back from corporate. If you call the toll free number on the statement it’s only a call center. They don’t have authorization to refund fees, although the can see our contract and know that I am being overcharged. BE WARNED – STAY AWAY FROM THESE FRAUDS!

Be careful about this company. We signed credit card terminal lease; lease clearly stated 36 months and after 36 months we owned terminal. After 36 months, I was told by Merchant lynx that it is not true. What a rip off. How can I file a law suit in small court against this company. I have everything in writing. Please help.

We just had a salesman come in and get my husband and I to sign up with Merchant Lynx. He told me on the phone and in person to my husband that there is NO Contract and now we have a lease with the credit card machine company that my husband did not sign for. He forged his initials afterwards. I am trying to figure out how to get out of it. I already put a complaint into the BBB. I am waiting for a call from their office in NY which I will most likely not get. I am thinking of changing bank accts which is a PITA but I don’t want to have money taken out for the machine. It is such a scam and I am going to get to the bottom of it. There are so many complaints online about them. I am pissed!!! Any other suggestions??

I just wanted to give everyone a short update. Merchant Lynx called me and told me they closed my account and waived my early termination fee. I am so happy! If you want more info, please let me know. The complaint with the BBB did help I think to get this situation resolved so do that first if you haven’t.

Merchant Lynx services was the worst business decision I ever made. The sles rep that walked in my door blatantly lied to my face. She gave me a break down of all this money I was going to save by switching, I didn’t save anything. The one time fees became monthly fees, and you have to fight to remove them. The “easily transferable” lease I am still paying for three years after selling my business. It was a very frustrating experience that put a bad taste in my mouth. I advise any one to do your homework when considering merchant services, and stay away from this company.

This company is horrible. As noted in the comments above they have hidden charges, misrepresented lease agreements. There really is no working with this company. If you are looking for a merchant… go somewhere else.

I have been trying to get away of merchant lynx for over a year and still have not been able to. They opened additional accounts I did not approved, been charging my checking account on additional fees, checking service fees and other issues.

Never completely settled our compalint with BBB and now I still have to deal with the fact they will not reinburse all money;s owed.

Outright lying and deceit. If you sign with this company you just have to hope you don’t go out of business because there will be a surprise waiting for you in the form of a lease termination fee. How the Pan Gregorian group that is suppose to be looking out for and trying to get good deals for restaurants can endorse this company makes me wonder what kind of payoffs are going on there. I’m sick one a representative of this company stepped into my store.

Phillip, I was a victim of deceit also. Specifically, they set up 2 accounts for me, one for swiped cards, another for keyed cards, I only signed up for 1 account. The Customer Service rep aslo informed me that there was a steep termination fee if I terminated before 3 years. This was a one sentence blurb buried in 3 pages of fine print which I didn’t have time to read while the sales rep pressured me to sign, and I had customers waiting for me. No one should be scammed for months, when I received my 1st statement, I closed my bank account and they couldn’t withdraw any more funds. Don’t be fooled by these scam artists.

Merchant Lynx and First Data are bad companies to deal with. Merchant Lync came into my business and promised lower rates and a free credit card machine. Two weeks after starting with them I received notice in the mail that I had a 48 month lease of $79.95 a month which i never signed up for. I cancelled immediately and went back to credit card company I had been using. This was in 2007. I had to stop payments thru bank several times but did get them to stop and I never paid them anything. I was turned over to collection agency and they sold to another collection agency and now I am going to court with local attorneys who buy bad collection debts. They are saying I owe $7000.00 but settle for $5000.00. They produced contract that had my inititals on it. I had initialed a one time charge of $79.95. The salesman added the 48 months after he left my office. I am going to court because this is wrong. I will be going to court on April 30. This is so wrong.

Same thing happened to my business.. Peter Rhee was the sales scammer.. Showed us in writing on paper he took with him how we woud save with their processing fees. He even suggested he could lower our rates to make up for the cost to replace our owned equipment with his equipment.. We owned our equipment and they showed up with two mismatching used units and TOOK our old units with them.. Then the free credit card processors turned into a 48 months lease costing us over 4500.00 for the term.. .. To make a long story short I filed an afidavit of forgery and then closed my bank account.. I presented the forgery document to the collections agency and they said they could not collect on my debt if the contract with First Data was signed on a Merchant Linx contract. I presented the forged contract that was filled in after we left and the collection agency sent the debt back to Merchant Linx and no other collector bought the case..

They used my signature page on the one contract I did sign for a rate of 1.7% and fraudulently created a second contract for a rate of 2.20% . They made some simple changes on the fake signature page in order to make it appier original but it is clear that my signatures are exactly the same as the original contract that I did sign. I would be more than happy to testify on your behalf.

This company has more complaints than you are aware of; many having to do with employee pay and the company’s flagrant failure to pay employees, especially after they have quit. One of the manager’s, [name omitted], is a disgusting pig who should be in jail for fraud. Don’t walk, run away from this company as fast as you can when they come calling.

How are there no comments on this company? I have dealt with this company and can say that Philip is right on the mark on this one. Hidden fees out the wazoo, and their termination fee is actually around $600-700. I have taken credit cards since the late 90’s up till now and have never had a multi-year contract. All my processors that I had dealt with, up to Merchant Lynx Services, had offered me a month to month, no termination fee. Merchant Lynx Services also promised me the same, to match whatever offer I had prior to Lynx. But, my addendum was “lost” and they requested that I pay upwards to around $1600-2000 to leave them (termination fees+lost monthly fees which were undisclosed.) I tricked my salesman Joel Cardonick and got him to do a three way call to Merchant Lynx Services customer service. I told him that I was just checking on my account and needed his expertise in closing them. I got him, on record, to state that another addendum existed that stated that I was on a month to month contract with no termination fee. The rep told him to find the addendum and fax it, otherwise I was to be held to the terms with a termination fee. Needless to say, I never heard back from Joel or Lynx, when I would try to contact Joel, no one would pickup. Also, whenever their reps called you, their business numbers were always blocked. I have received notices from them about a few weeks after this incident, stating that they will, essentially, attack my credit if I do not pay them. I will tell you, if my credit is harmed, I will litigate and have more of a reason to do so after their illegal actions.

Their promise to the BBB a few years ago, stated that they would disclose all terms of the contract, and follow up with their customers, to ensure satisfaction. They did not do this and I doubt they ever had. There are so many blogs about this company I lost count. And I have now took it upon myself to go after them personally, with the help of a couple State Attorney Generals and plan to bring about federal and state criminal charges against them.

There is more to this story, but I will not bore you with all the details, all of which have been forwarded to law enforcement. If you have been contacted by this company or have done business with them, be vigilant, document everything, and be especially suspicious when it comes to the contract and the behavior of their sales staff.

Provider of the Month

Why Fattmerchant: This provider has one of the most competitive pricing plans of any merchant account provider in the card processing industry. Fattmerchant also offers a month-to-month service agreement, no cancellation fees, no hidden fees, and processing options for virtually any business need. Add to all of this easy-to-use technology and top-rated customer support, and you can’t go wrong with this choice.

Exposing The Truth

Hi, I’m Phillip and I’m disgusted by the state of credit card processing industry. I believe that it has been overrun by people who engage in fraud and deception in order to steal from hard working business owners. I’ve made it my mission to expose the companies and individuals who engage in predatory marketing, pricing, and contracts. You shouldn’t have to worry about paying inflated fees or getting trapped in expensive contracts when you are simply trying to take payments from your customers.

Phillip Parker Founder & Critic

P.S. If you would like to help support my work, please checkout “Fee Sweep” my eGuide to getting the lowest possible fees when accepting card payments. If you haven’t heard of “interchange” this advice will save you hundreds, even thousands, in fees.